The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-07-26
THE OPIUM FARMER.
Wretched hIndoos Who Live In Pow.
erty Amid Possibilities of Riches.
IN. Y. SUM-


erty Amid Possibilities of Riches.
IN. Y. SUM-
There is nothing the soil can produce that
can be cultivated with more profit to the hus-
bandman than the poppy, If it is cultivated
in the right country" said the head Of
large drug importing house, "and yet there
are no farmers in the world who are so uni
versally and perpetually poverty stricken as
the growers Of the poppy. The many thous-
ands of people who are engaged in the pro-
duction of opium in India-and / speak from
personal knowledge obtained on extended
visits to the provinces of Benares, Bahar,
and Malwah-live year after year from hand
to mouth. when they might reap fortunes by
very little energy and extra exertion. The
opium farmer of India lives and labors with
but three objects in view. These are, first,
to decorate his wife profusely with orna-
ments, to eat off a brass plate, and to be in
position to make great display when his
oldest son is married. As far as the wife's
jewelry is concerned that is a matter of re-
ligious duty, the Hindoo religion demanding
that certain ornaments must be worn by mar
ried women. and the real wealth, If wealth
1t may be called, offhe native land owner is
in his wifes jewels, and whatever a hus-
bandman gain by his poppy culture ne
immedlately invests in jewelry, the same as
the<fankee farmer places his money in bond
and mortgage. If the Indian farmer on mar
rying cannot do any better in the way of Jew
elry, he must give the bride he obtains lead
ornaments. This keeps the religious form,
but the very first year he has been energetic
enough to raise a good opium crop the lead
jewelry gives place to silver or gold. On the
marriage of his oldest son an Indian farmer
will waste in weeks jollification the entire
savings Of years Of privation.
1t is strange sight to see the Hindo0
women at work in the fields, gathering pop
py juice or picking weeds, decked out with
huge gold rings, bracelets, anklets, and
chains, and wearing but single short petit
coat eos and gay colqred wrap Of light texture.
is called, are very few and simple. A
matched roof, covering four confined mud
walls, shelter him, and there are families who
have lived for hundreds of years, generation
after generation, in the same howell like home
stead. The farmers suit of everyday work
ing clothes is very scant cloth fastened
about his loins. His dress up suit is q big
cotton sheet folded about him. His entire
family, from himself down to the smallest
child he owns that is not too small to crawl
about among the poppy plants, and know
the difference between weed and poppy,
share in the toll of the field The small chill
dren are clothed just as they came into the
world, and appear comfortable, no matter
how hot the sun shines or how low the tenn
perature may fall-and in November, Decem-
Der, January and February, when the bulk
OF the field work Is done, the weather is quite
cold enough for at least summer clothing.
These happy -go-lucky tillers of the soil de-
pend entirely on the government to keep
then. going year after year in the matter of
farming. Thus the government advances
the poppy seed that is to be sown, loans
the money by which the land is irrigated,
and the bullocks purchased to carry on the
work. The cultiYator will not till more of
his land than he can manage without other
help than his own immediate family, and
consequently patch leased to any one farm
er that is half an acre in extent is an excep-
of an acre, called 6igka,, is the favorite
quantity of land for farmer to seed down
with peoples, but he will put in tenth or q
sixth on pinch. There are untold advan-
tages in the growing of opium for extended
enterprise, but the rdidt will not expend the
smallest Indian coin to acquire these advan-
tages. and with it great gain, for the profit
IN opium producti0nis large, owing to the
policy OF the government in paying large
prices for the product as means of preclud-
Ing Illicit traffic in it.
The farmers themselves have no direct in
tercourse with the government. Each vii
lage of opium growers selects some native as
their representative or agent with the au-
th0rities. He is called 1.-THE Ldmbdrddr. 1t
is his business to give estimates to the
government agents as tothe probable yield of
the farms he represents, on which the loans
and advances may be based. He manages
every transaction between the government
and the farmers, and for his services he gets
a commission on all the opium he causes to
be delivered to what are known as the
weighing stations, points where the product
OF certain districts is carried by the growers
and turned over TO the agents.
The opium gathering begins in January or
February. The poppy flowers have then
in the afternoon. The thick gum, the Opt
UNI, exudes from the cut made in the pod,
and at daylight the next morning the entire
family of rdidt are astir in the fields, scrap
ing the opium from the pods, the incisions
being carefully closed again, by rubbing the
finger sharply up and down ON the cuts,
which CLUES them shut. Ii carefully treated
the pods will expand literally to six lane
ings. The opium is at first placed in brass
vessels, and the dew that may adhere to it is
drained off Then it is kneadcd like dough
until It is at the proper consistency, when it
is packed innew earthern jars and is ready
to be carried to the weighing stations.
The order to fetch in the years crop Of
opium is generally given early in April, and
that is the most interesting season of the
year to the rdidt and his family. Each far
mer is notified that on certain day he must
be at the weighing station of his district for
testing anu weighing. An entire village,
men, women and children, join:in joyous pro-
cession when this notice is received, and la
den with the jars of opium, start for the des-
tlnatOn. They travel only at night, as the
heat of the sun is so great at that season of the
year that the journey would be uncomfortable
All day they lounge in the groves and shady
lanes, feasting and joining in various recre-
atoms. These wayside camps of the opium
villages are picturesque sights to the trav-
eller through these provinces. When
group arrive at the weighing station they
are ranged in long lines before the examiner,
who examines the opium of each one and
marks the quality and weight of each jar
with piece of chalk ON the side of the jar
Inc examiners are experts, and can tell by
the feeling. whether a sample of opium is
adulterated, but they put it to chemical tests
as We'll After the opium is all weighed and
tested the different farmers receive the
amount their yield entities them to, less the
government advances, and the CAV process
sion takes up its march for home The OPT
UNI Is forwarded to Calcutta in boxes known
as opium chests, and the insidious drug is
ready to be sent on its mission of BLESSING To
many and of misery to many more"
ord A hardapn WIN salad for EpOlood -.